I think my state university engineering degree was a bargain. It got me a good job right out of college. An English degree costs the same, but it would definitely be worth a lot less once you graduate. Should they charge more for the engineering?
Some do. I know mine did, but it was only like an extra $500 a year in the mid 80’s (not sure what it would be now).
That is just to pay for lab equipment though, not based on the idea that a degree should cost as much as it can provide in income when you graduate.
Agreed. I’m sure it was a cost recovery issue and not tied to any notion that my degree was inherently superior or had more economic potential.
I understand the cost/benefit aspect of charging more for some degrees but getting back to the topic at hand, I think that policy would be blatantly unfair.
In essence you would be setting aside open positions in more economically viable careers to the highest bidder. I understand there is a supply/demand aspect to that logic but it seems to me that it would hurt society as a whole. Talented engineers, scientists, (pick any profession), come from all types of backgrounds. I would hate to think that we would be deprived a talented individual’s contribution because some less qualified kid from a rich family out bid him in his quest for an education.
The last part of my previous post was the answer to that.
I guess I am missing the point here. A college degree today allows you to earn a proportionally higher income now than it did in 1980. A computer today does the same thing. You simply couldn’t function in nearly all the jobs without a computer today so. 20 years ago very few people used a computer in their job and so they had less worth compared to today.
There is no inherent “worth” in something, other than what people are willing to pay for it. If something costs less, then it is, by definition, worth less. Now, if you could time travel and bring a 2005 PC back to 1985, yes, that computer would be worth more-- ie, people would be willing to pay more for it than the current 1985 model. But that makes no sense as a way to guage worth because you can’t time travel.
You are using two definitions of worth. For a PC you are using what a person will pay to purchase it but for college you are using what someone can earn with a degree. You need to compare apples to apples here. How much money a person can earn with a computer and how much they can earn with a college degree or how much a computer costs and how much a college education costs. If you want to say that if something costs less, then it is, by definition, woth less then a college degree 20 years ago cost less, then by definition, worth less.
You’re confusing utility with cash value.
Air has enormous utility, you simply couldn’t survive more than a few minutes without it today. However it is so readily available that it has little or no cash value.
No, that’s not what I’m doing. I’m explaining why someone is willing to pay more for a college degree now than 20 years ago (ie, why it’s worth more). Or, rather, I’m offering one of the reasons that it costs more, since there are proabably many reasons for the tuition increase. If, for instance, half the colleges in the US were suddenly destroyed, the remaining colleges would be able to raise their fees because those slots would now be worth more to the people vying for them. Nothing about those slots changed-- the teachers didn’t get better, the course info wasn’t improved-- they just became more rare.
Did you read the rest of my post? I, in fact, realize the difference and went through the two ways to determine worth. The two ways being how much someone will pay for it and how much you can make with it. For the first method a computer was worth more 20 years ago becuase people were willing to pay more for it. In the second method a computer is worth more today becuase you can make more money with it.
Since the whole comment that started this exchange was:
“OTOH, a college degree is worth a lot more than it used to be, and so it makes sense that it will cost more.”
The only meaning for worth that makes sense there is how much you can produce with it. If the meaning of worth was that it cost more in relation to other goods the statement wouldn’t make sense. It would be saying “A college degree costs a lot more in relation to other goods than it used to, and so it makes sense that it will cost more.”
Ah I see.
I read your post in it’s entirety and responded to it.
In fact you are referring to what you said in a SUBSEQUENT post which was not there when I was responding (hamsters being what they are).